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Al Qaeda chiefs 'met in December'

Captured Mohammed
Mohammed began to talk on the third day, Pakistani officials say.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The alleged operational mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, met with Osama bin Laden in December, Pakistani intelligence officials say.

But they say they still do not know where al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is. And that despite last week's reports of searches for him along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, they have no hot leads and officials are no closer to finding him.

On Monday officials showed an eight minute video tape of the early morning raid that captured Shaikh Mohammed. They said that he is answering interrogators' questions.

The briefing took place at Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's intelligence agency. Pakistan intelligence officials rarely, if ever, hold press briefings, CNN's Tom Mintier said.

Officials held the briefing in part to let the world know that the March 1 capture outside Islamabad of one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists was a Pakistan-led raid that U.S. officials only helped with.

The United States provided some electronic surveillance, but the human intelligence and the raid itself was carried out by Pakistan, officials said.

"There was a clear indication that Pakistan officials were unhappy that news of the arrest came from United States," said Mintier.

"The raid was conducted by Pakistan. The United States shared some intelligence, but Pakistan put the case together to make the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed."

Nonetheless later, U.S. officials said CIA officers were on the scene during the raid that netted Mohammed, contradicting Pakistani officials' comments.

A U.S. official told CNN "CIA officers were on the scene."

U.S. officials declined to comment on two other assertions from ISI: that the Pakistanis interrogated Mohammed for three days, and that he told them he had met with Osama bin Laden in December.

Earlier Pakistan officials said that after two days of mostly nodding his head in response to questions, Mohammed started to talk on day three. The officials offered no explanation why Mohammed changed his mind and began to talk.

Bin Laden
There are currently no hot leads on bin Laden's whereabouts, Pakistani officials say.

He said he last met with bin Laden in December, the Pakistani officials said. He did not say where the meeting took place, or who else participated.

Intelligence officials showed the eight minute video tape of the early morning raid during which Mohammed was captured in a house in Rawalpindi, a suburb of Islamabad. Because of the camera angle, Mohammed's face is not visible in the video.

CNN asked for a copy of the video, but one was not provided.

Officials did not recognize the beardless Mohammed at first. In his most circulated photographs. Mohammed has a beard.

The footage shows Pakistani intelligence agents preparing for the raid, with senior officials checking to make sure bullet proof vests were secure. It shows them using bolt cutters to cut off a padlock on the door.

The video also shows what appears to be a T-shirt-wearing Mohammed pressed face first against the wall as intelligence officers handcuffed him.

Pakistan officials have shared with U.S. officials the contents of a computer disk taken from the house where Mohammed was captured. Pakistan still has the "truckload" of hard evidence taken that morning, officials said.

Mohammed, believed to have been the key planner of the September 11 terrorist attacks, is being interrogated at an undisclosed location outside of the U.S. and outside of Pakistan.

The self-described head of al Qaeda's military committee, Mohammed is believed to be the strategist who helped coordinate finances and recruitment for the global terrorist network.

Born in Kuwait to a Pakistani father, he studied engineering in North Carolina before going to Afghanistan in the mid-1980s to train volunteers to fight the Soviets, where he met bin Laden.

In addition to the September 11 attacks, Mohammed has been linked to a plot in the mid-1990s to blow up jetliners in the Philippines; the bombing of the USS Cole in 2002; Richard Reid's foiled attempt to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb in December 2001; and recent bombings at a Tunisian synagogue and a nightclub on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

-- CNN's Tom Mintier contributed to this report.


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